Emptiness
by MikaMckeena
Summary: Grace wants one more winter as a wolf and Sam can not understand why while Isabel gets news that changes everything with her and Cole.
1. Chapter 1

Emptiness

Fandom: Wolves of Mercy Falls/Shiver

Type: Chapter One

Cannons: Grace, Sam, Cole, Isabel

Words: 1835

Summary: Grace wants one more winter as a wolf and Sam can not understand why while Isabella gets news that changes everything with her life and Cole.

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Chapter One: Parting Paths

Fall had come to the forest of the land in colors of rich golden and scarlet, birch showing every white with a company of golden leaves still clinging in the false Indian summer that soon would give away to cold winds from the Great Lake and winter once more coming to claim the lands and encase it in a deep slumber.

Nothing seemed to move under the leaves and between the timbers but a faint ruffle of movement from the ferns and cracking of leaves on the forest floor. A flash of black and others of red and gold's, grays and browns and a near white now and then as they pushed and touched, growled and whined, showing images of simpleness in their bound of minds and pack. They where the wolves in this land of summer fading, and this place was both their home and also in some ways also a cage with a fence around parts. A watcher might think them normal for wolves but the eyes framed in furs of tones where not like the wolves of normal lands, these eyes where keen and too human, to deep and forth coming of what lay hidden under the shape.

Some of the even the body langue of the wolves seem too human, a pause in a glance, eyes closed to long in grief and even their howls had notes of more depth. Among their numbers, some had just come back to the pack and where met in grand joy of their noted abduct but some of the wolves also knew close by where others in a shape once theirs in the heat of summer, in which the chill of winter would remake them back to the lean shape of the wolf and rejoin their family. The leader and black of their numbers along with a playful brown would come to the edge of a large cabin in knowing and scenting others of their numbers close by. Humans waiting to shed their skins and come to run back home where they belong.

Hazel eyes looked back into the deep chocolate of the black as they moved from the pack, showing him a image of a car or two in the drive way and images of a young man with black hair that they both knew and also of one more human male and one female, one with gold. Paul sent back a feeling of knowing them but a question also of why? The black hair boy he knew, recalling the images of the blue grey wolf with amber eyes over lapping the human and an auburn shade she wolf over the human girl and also in same with the other male who lived in the cabin.

Derrick blinked, and fell close to the leader as they moved from the pack and made way to the cabin and scent of wood smoke. One other male, a nearly dirty grey in shades with a white foot also knew the boy and not the girl and was order to keep the pack to the lake for a hunt. Ulrike whined a bit, nearly recalling images of the boy as a kid, all legs and voice but there was no names but images and near recalling of their human days. Images passed of no understanding in their simple langue of human days of cars and books with words not recalled but Paul pushed the order and Ulrike shook his body and moved the pack.

Both wolves in moments of stride came in the bushes of the cabin, ears perked in hearing human voices but the tone spoke of a fight, Paul sat down a moment and listened in while the younger male moved closer as the words drifted out.

If the wolves could understand the human voices and meaning of words, much would have been known of the reason of the fight.

Grace for the moment leaned under the sunlight lit window, her body feeding on the warmth that kept her human for the seasons but last night the chill had stolen her human form and the wolf has bound into the forest of their old pack lands. Coming back later in the morning with an over worried Sam pulling her in to a hot shower and the heater all the way up. Much the reason they had come here and for other reasons.

Sam on the other hand was sitting on a love seat that had seen better days but his body was tense with anger, "I don't see why you want to wait Grace? Last night was to close for comfort when you shifted. What might if a hunter had been out there?" His tone was edge, nerves and angry but soft as always in talking.

She paused a moment, letting his words slide on her mind but it was a fight they had been having all summer. Why was it strange she wanted one winter to be a wolf and live out her dreams? Just for one winter to be in the pack and live in the moment with no past or regrets? Some how it would make up for all these years of longing to be one, her soul to take its right shape? Sam could not understand after all that had happened to them this year from the hunt of spring and finding a near cure for the virus that made them shift thanks to Cole who at the matter was looking up from a medical book of some kind. He and Grace had talked about this and strangely he understand her reasons but kept silent, having shifted himself last night and loving the freedom.

"Look Sam, I have told you why more then once why, it's just one winter. I can take the cure come spring and everything will work out like it did for you..." Softly her voice floated out, leaning under the warmth of the sun but already her nose catching the scents of the forest and the wolf under her skin pushing a bit, "It's just something I need to do for myself personally."

Sam narrowed his amber eyes in a slight anger once more, why could she not understand his side? Too many things could happen to her as a wolf in winter and she would be stuck as a wolf. Yes this new place was safe from human hunters and threats but there was an endless list of natural ways a wolf or one of them could be killed even with the pack. "Grace, you know my own reasons Angel. And I know how I feel on it but it just seems why take the chance?"

She loved him more then anything, he was the other half of her soul but sometimes Sam only could see his fear, after nearly losing himself as a human in the wolf. Meningitis had burned the wolf to a point out of Sam, fighting the virus in his body and keeping him human. Cole had been the one to find out the so called reasons for the shifting and trigger and how it all worked out. Even now he was playing around in his home made lab with blood and such things of the wolfs.

Once a rock star now werewolf and researcher, he put down his book, looking like a model always even with messy hair, "Ok love birds, lets let the subject dye for a bit huh and get to the point! I've been hearing this fight all summer and let's get it out. A: Grace wants one free winter as a wolf to make up all these years of not being one. B: Sam is scared something will happen to said Grace while she's a wolf and he will be helpless to save her life. C: Come spring, Grace takes Cure, stays human mostly with a shift now and then till all settles while said Sam is the Cure and hates the idea of Shifting. That kiddies sums up the whole thing."

Something of the parched tone of Cole did get a smile from Grace as always to the point in his own way. "Yah that kinda puts things black and white Cole, thanks."

He smiled, bowing, "Yes, I am hear to please as always."

Sam only reached over to rub his forehead as he felt a headache coming on between the two in knowing he had just lost the fight some how. Yet he kept it up, knowing time was fading in the warmth would take his Grace away for months till spring. He hated the idea of her not being with him and the fears of loosing her always echoing in his mind set. "Grace, look…"

"No Sam, no more fighting on this. No reasons why and I know why hon, but this is the one thing I want to do for myself, selfish as it sounds and it's not like I am going to be alone. Cole is going to be there also and the pack. Things will be and its just one winter, one winter is what I want…." Grace was firm in her tone as she walked out and pass him outside for some air.

Sam bit his inner lip once more, casting a look at Cole, "You're not helping this at all Cole…"

Cole raised a brow of question as he put down the book but no sarcasm enter his tone in being point blank as he could with the former werewolf. "It's her choice Samuel, not mine or yours. Yes I can understand why she wants it and I won't lie that I don't. Let her have her winter as a wolf, then after that Ringo, you two love birds have your whole lives as humans mostly. Or other, you could join us….."

Sam looked up, a bit of shock in his features that Cole would even say something like that. Becoming a wolf again and loosing him partly? He had fought too hard to become human and stay with Grace till she had herself become the wolf. Even after moving the pack and knowing that in his heart, he was Sam even as the wolf. That fear of loosing his humanity would just stay.

"No Cole, never again. I can't take that chance again. Grace knows why and so do you." Sam's voice was hollow, looking down at his hands. "I can never be wolf again…"

Outside, both wolves lingered and caught the tone of the words but the meaning was lost yet the scent from the girl outside held a promise she would shift soon come the edge of winter and so would the other male but what of the black hair youth? Would he shift at all?

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Note: First fanfiction in a while but I love the books and so far have 7/10 out chapters done! So there might be moments of occness to let you know but please bare with them.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Breaking Glass

LA, Calfotiona

Pink and perfect finger nails tapped on the wooden desk in the office of the Doctor, the walls lined in shelves of books and framed diploma lined the wall in black frames. The colors mundane and lacking in anything to personal for someone to call themselves a Doctor but a image on his desk, of a family in a blue frame with a boxer on it did show something human about him at least.

This was Isabel third visit to the good Doctor after some more tests had been run and blood drawn and x-rays done over the last month. It had all started with a killer headache, moments of dizziness and numbness in her hands and body here and there. She had come to the good old Doctor just hoping it was something normal and curable, a pill or shot but after some blood test this week and X-Rays. Mr. Smith had called her in, his voice sounding grave like in saying he wanted a privet meeting.

So now here she was, dragging her body here and missing her collage classes once more for god knows what test to be run. "Wish he would hurry up…." She muttered, blue eyes under long angel like lashes eyeing the books. Some of them related to her chosen major as a nurse. After what had happen with Jack and other things with the wolves of mercy falls and also known Cole St Clair, Isabel thought of being a nurse. Which was kinda a curve ball in looking at the near Prefect Callie Girl but what the hell huh?

Finely the door cracked open, a man in his middle 40's and ashy hair with a good amount of bags under his eyes looked at the young woman with a soft smile, "Glad you made it; sorry I'm a bit late! Had a last moment meeting out of the blue."

Mr. Smith moved to it down in his chair, her case file in hand as he opened it and bit his lip in knowing what was going to say would make a car crash out of this young woman's life. "Miss Culpeper., I will be right to the point and won't sugar coat it for you. Now after running test and taking X-Rays, we did find the cause of your symptoms."

Isabel felt something cold hit her gut in his tone, something about his eyes and hands as he looked at the file and back at her. "Yah what is it? Just get to the point alright? I'm missing my class and….

He cut her off, "You have a brain tumor, and it's grown to the point in which we can't …operate."

Everything stopped for her, all words dying in the full hit of the words of the Doctor hit her, "Brain Tumor?"

Mr. Smith licked his lips, feeling guilt in telling this bright young soul she was going to dye. "Yes, there is nothing we can do Miss Culpeper, you have a good year left and with some drugs, maybe two if we start things now. But in the truth, there is nothing we can do for you and I am sorry."

Something like a auto pilot took over Isabel as every thing to this day shatter like glasses, she heard the doctor tell her things they could, new drugs and such bull shit. He looked in truth of a over well guilt he had given her and some how her mind made a human connection but she only voiced a few things, looked at the papers and information and made a appoint in a week to go over things.

Everything thing was perfect if you did gaze on this young woman leaving the offices from white gold hair all shine and gleam with no strand out of place to her nails and color choices. Strangely in a sort of twist after the events of Mercy Falls, the once bright star had toned it down a bit but always the Beach Girl did come out and all the more at the club.

Her blue Ford Mustang GT500 sat in the parking lot, shone and shine with no dent or crack in the mirror. Something a Cali girl would drive and fitting the image of Isabel but what hung in the review mirror was the paper cut out of a wolf, a gift from Grace when she had left Mercy Falls last year after the pack moving and the endless drama that had become the pillar point of her young life which now seemed so far away in the news.

Opening the door, she slide into the leather seat with the heat baking her body after a few hours in the setting sun now gleaming on the ocean's mirror calm. The reality hit...

She was dying.

Never maybe to plan for her next collage classes for being a nurse and after that or travel over to France as she was saving money just to have goal all her own. Something of Grace in making goals had rubbed off on the gleaming woman.

Yes she was going dye but Isabel also knew something the Doctor did not, something that might save her life but also cage her in years and shifting seasons.

Flipping open her phone, she had given up in the touch scenes and I-phones after breaking and smashing a good amount of cash of fixes. Her fingers scanned over the half the numbers of so call useless friends and noted the date all the more. Winter was coming to Mercy Falls soon, which no real snow ever hit here in her place of choosing but there it meant a lot to a few souls she could name as true friends and one of them was Grace, her long time one werewolf boy friend Sam and the ex-lead singer bad boy now werewolf and semi mad scientist Cole.

Grace's went to voice mail and so did the other two, could Grace and Cole shift yet? The days where still to warm but the nights could call to the wolf in their body and Sam was stuck as human so why no pick up at all? Or they could be on the god forsaken peninsula that had no cell cover worth the price they paid for freaking cell phones!

Isabella felt the sweat on her body building but licking her cherry red lips, the choice came down to one as she made a phone call, "I need a ticket to Duluth, _Minnesota _and a rental car in the next 24 hours and I will pay it no matter the price."

Moments later and money later her blue eyes closed as she snapped her phone shut and let the heat bake her body. The doctor she was going to dye in a year but there was one way she could buy herself a number of years.

All she had to do was become a wolf…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Shades

Night blue kissed the sky for the moment as she spotted the sparkle of the lake between the timbers for the moment, her nose catching scents of fresh water, the hint of fall and decay and the tell end of frost that would cast the land in a strange sparkle once the sun would rise but the chill was also pulling at the wolf under her skin more and more, knowing she would shift till morning and sunlight would re cast to the human flesh.

Shifting at first had hurt, her body fighting one form to the other as her human mind would cling to memories and the true meaning of hands and colors in the spring of this year but now. Shifting now it seemed like putting on a silk glove, going from one form to the other in heart beats and the shadow of the human gone with all its regrets and meanings. Things where simple as a wolf but also complex in words she could not give a true meaning.

Grace had tried to tell Sam her moments as a wolf, even trying to send him images with more meaning and details as she did in wolf form but he seemed to shudder in seeing those images and being reminded of what he once was and still was just under the skin but no shifting of the chill to take away his humanity. How could she love being a wolf after what it had nearly taken from them both? Sam had asked her that one summer night, her mind trying to form what to say. All those years of not shifting but the wolf part of her soul, wanting to be born and running with the pack. The ever freedom of being part of nature, not an on looker like most humans. Oh she could have given him more and more but always he shed from it.

Cole and she had talked about it a few times when she came out just to visit and to get away from the summer of her parents, and school. Walking in the woods and knowing the other wolves walked with them as passing shadows under pines, knowing and feeling the truth of these humans and what lay under. He loved the freedom of being a wolf, loosing his memories while she also the freedom and the pure sense of belong. Sam had found no love in being a wolf but only having his family but it was a shallow lie.

Yes being a wolf meant little every year, you lost the humanity of you and the pure identity of what made a person who they where but yet also, you kept the pure heart of what made you also all the more you. Grace knew Sam had touched on that on his last shift to lead the pack from Mercy Falls to this place.

Snap!

A trig sounded out as it broke, Grace brought out of her thoughts to glance over her shoulder and seeing the outline of a wolf, her poor human nose picking up the musk on the breeze. Human eyes meant for daylight stream in the coming evening to catch its color but enough light from the cabin windows showed it was Ulrik, the so called crazy German Sam had loved. He had stopped shifting the year before the other, look bluish grey and nearly blending in the twilight blue. Having taken Beck's place in the pack these weeks and watching out for the wolves very much like an uncle.

"Hey Ulrik, taking a stroll?" She whisper, putting out her wrist and letting her scent come to his twitching nose, "To bad Sam's not here…."

She sent him an image of the human Sam, guitar out and singing some lyrics. He flicked a ear and somehow the feeling of smiling reached her, simple and pure like most things of the wolves. A image was met of a younger Sam trapped in a tree a bit high and a human Beck looking worried and arms open in case Sam might fall. Grace blinked a moment in seeing such a human clarity to the image but it did make her smile sadly.

Pushing her dark blond hair to her ears in a blush of finger tips, "He misses him a lot, Beck."

Ulrik sat down, the words having some form of meaning but the edged sorrow tone and feeling of the female did make sense, knowing Beck was gone left a strange hollow feeling in the wolf, a human like sorrow of loosing a brother. Whining softly in the memories of a man he would never be or take form. There was times the wolves had moments of celerity, of recalling who they where in pelts and minds.

Moments of silenced fill the spaces between the human and wolf, connected in many formless ways from a boy to the pack bounds. Grace felt the chill taping her skin as the wolf in her own body pushed out, the cold was going to take her tonight once more having taken Cole just a hour ago in knowing the wolf was in the woods, waiting for her with the pack.

"Grace, come inside where it's warm!" Sam's sharpen tone broke her from the push just to walk into the woods and run on four paws.

Ulrik blinked, head tilted in hearing the voice he knew so much and whined. He had something of a human like pause, fighting his instincts to flee from the human voice but images of the amber eyed boy of all ages rushed him. Could he go? Find the young man just to look Beck's son with his own eyes, even lacking in human colors. Yet Paul sent a call to come home, a hunt tonight and Ulrik knew he should go but he cast one glance at the retreating form of Grace, sending her an image of a mix of a Hi to Sam before rushing away into the yellow ferns.

Fire bloomed in sparks, casting out a heat to keep her firmly in her human skin for now, knowing Sam and built up the fire for just that reason. "Bring any marshmallows?" Grace's humor seemed bland, closing the door to the chill and promise of the shift coming.

Sam paused, picking up the faint musk of wolf under her skin and turned his head to hide his frown a bit from her knowing eyes. Grace took it with a huff and went to sit on love seat, crossing her legs and leaning a bit on the back. Eyes watching Sam as he built the fire, saying no words but knowing.

"I saw Ulrik…" her tone was calm, but the jerk of his shoulders and twist of his head with amber eyes made her talk softer, "He kinda told me to say Hi to you…."

For Sam, to hear his Angel say that, passing on a message from one of the wolves to him hit a nerve; ripples of a spark of hope to an empty sadness filled his face in moments. Recalling the image of the German in his human form and not the wolf he had become the year before last. Sam clung on to those memories of his family in human form under the summer sun and growing up in their lessons. To think of them stuck as wolves for the rest of what ever years they had did burn something close to anger in his soul. Yet maybe the comics joke was some of them could recall their human days while in wolf pelt.

"Sam?"

He had frozen next to standing near the fire, looking like one of her mom's painting in oils dulled shaded. "Sam, what's wrong?"

"Wrong, everything is wrong Grace..." Bitter words dropped from his lips, "My family is gone, never to be human again…and soon I'm going to loose you also to the passage of winter like them."

Biting her lip, she could some how know how he felt when knowing once that Sam as the man could have stayed Sam the wolf forever but karma had been kind and found a way to make her Sam human mostly all the time, while she strangely had become the wolf. Yet they knew there was a way to cure it and now she refused it for just one winter.

Grace paused, trying to think of what to say in the crackle of the fire. "Sam, I promise you in spring, I will do it and take the cure, to be with you always but think of it like this maybe. If it works on me as a wolf and keeps me human, Cole thinks there is a chance it might work on the other wolves…"

He turned, eyes wide and big in hearing these words for the first time, yet Grace put up a hand to keep him silent while she talked, "And we could do to them what we did to Beck, give them 15 minutes as humans and explain things to them and let them make the choice Sam, this is something you can't force on others."

Choice, what choice? Once more he felt bitter in his mind, a haze filling his mind of memories of his family, all human once winter came back. They had not been given a choice when bite as wolves and made into animals! "Grace, there is no choice! They need to be human! They never had a choice to start with!"

"They do now Sam…" Her soft words silence him, anger shaking his body and for a moment the growl of the hidden wolf forming in his chest and throat. "That's the gift we can give them at least is the choice, to be cured or stay as wolves. Did you ever think maybe some of them like being wolves?"

She had a way of hitting close to home, memories of Paul walking out into the snow with a child like glee on his face in knowing he would be a wolf soon. Moments where Beck did seem to welcome the shift of man to wolf, running with the pack and even Shelby welcoming it in her own lonely way. Even Olive, running into the snow and shifting with a smile, paws running to greet the pack. Then his Angel, memories of the night before, watching slip from his bed back at Beck's, her scent a mix of honey and wolf musk calling out to his nose and waking up to find her gone, running to the door to see her naked outline under the waxing moon and in steps with out the pain as she seemed to welcome the wolf and running into the fall timbers.

He cast something of a hard look at her, feeling his own wolf in his body and pushing it away, "Is that what you want to be Grace? A wolf? Loosing your humanity each and ever year? Loosing me?"

Her face shattered like glass, never hearing such a bitter tone or anger from Sam like this, brown eyes for the moment widen, hearing his accept to her. How many times had she tried to explain her own personal reasons just to want one winter as a wolf, knowing come spring she would be human and taking the cure to stay human to be with him? Grace her been strangely selfish for the first time in her life in picking Sam, overcoming her parents, making this her own choice and maybe selfish more just wanting to be a wolf? Both of them had fought so much to together, but even Grace wanted one more selfish choice for herself with the full knowledge of what it brought.

Grace did know one thing, he was scared. Scared of the wolf still under his skin, scared of loosing her to the wolves and scared of once more shifting. Yes when he had been wolf, had it been so bad just being with her like that as she had dreamed for so many years? Was there no simple joy or deep love in those moments his muzzle had touched hers their voice in wild song in calling the pack? Yes his words made her angry and sad but even all the more, trying to push his own fears on her?

Her lips tighten into a line as her eyes narrowed and a soft growl seemed to entrance her voice, "You know what Samuel; don't force your own fears on me alright! Yes I enjoy being a wolf and you make it sound like it's a sin some how! I know there had to be moments that you did enjoy it also! And don't lie about it to me! We've had this so called talk more then I can count this summer and I am done with it tonight!"

He felt his words hold in his throat like a bone, hearing and seeing his Grace angry like this made Sam blink more then a few times in the rare moments they had fought but hearing the truth as always silence him yet in moments she stood up and headed for the door, throwing it open as the rush of frost hit their skins and Grace stepped into the evening night and raising moon.

She moved in fast stride away from the warmth that kept her human and into the chill to take her human skin, feeling the pull of the wolf rise like a wave and pulling away the cloths in every step till nearly naked on the timbers edge and seeing eyes flash and the slits of a few wolves waiting for her, sending images in simples yet complex in hidden meaning, she stood there and felt the push of her skin to fur, bone reform like water and moving for a four legged body as she let go of the human mind and the wolf bloomed. Only she remind as a wolf with brown eyes and in moments leaping into the forest with the pack, only her tracks to show the change.

Sam could only hear her words and in moments Grace was gone out the door into the cold enough to shake her skin away from her. He followed, his voice calling but only the path of his cloths lead him to the timber's edge and the show of tracks from human to that of a wolf leaping filled his gaze. Some how her words haunted him in enjoying being a wolf, yet that was his own personal sin to say and emit yes he did enjoy some of the moments.

Casting a look from the tracks, she stood among the timber's, framed in soft light of the moon and shining like a brown jewel in his eyes, his Grace in wolf form. Eyes so human in animal skin made him want to cry as in a simple image, she sent two simple flowers blooming in the light of the sun, simple in image but deeper in the nature and meaning and he sent one back of them in full bloom.

"Grace…." Her name fell from his lips, ears perked and a low whine to his ears in she knew the name but not knowing it all the more.

Grace did know this human, know his wolf form and the amber play of his eyes and voice, the scent catching and yearning to her nose as she sent him a image of them both as wolves in winter and human in spring. He pulled back and tried to show her more of human she was but the wolf shook her body and turned to the timbers and those waiting for her while a boy was only left holding the clothing of a human and the wolf under his skin still yearning to be free.

Note: Sorry on the long updates, been a drama Japanese show in my home or aka real life, but here is chapter three!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Cracks

Songs: Mumford and Sons - Ghosts That We Knew/"Lover Of The Light"

Writers Note: Thanks to all my readers for faving/following/reviewing the story so far and I'm very sorry on the late chapter! Personal a lot was going on that I had to deal with in real life and also my pc did crash and lot nearly everything so I had to do a lot of writing to get back on track! Please keep reading and leave a review! Mika

Isabel for the moment felt like a beaten down dirty rag after the 5 hour flight from LA to the Chicago, her body ached and the one film that the airline had played had been "Pretty Women" of all flicks to pick. Even the music she might had listen too was enough to make the Caili girl want to claw out her own ears. Course to the rush in packing from home to here, she had also had left her I-pod in her suit case with out a thought so it had been a long plane ride.

Thankfully she had also booked a smaller plan that would had carried her Duluth, so no long drives and huge money spend on a car rental. The little plane had zipped in a two flight come the evening and something of a nap latter, she landed in a bright cascade of the sun falling over the skyline of Minnesota as lakes passed by, clear and clean as mirrors to the open sky. Colors spread in the full bloom of fall when had peeked out from the window in a sea of shades of red and yellows and tampered browns.

There was something Isabel had missed about living out in the country and in the middle of now were was the change of seasons, back in LA it was nearly all the same just minus the rains and random fires up in the hills and bush that would lower into the city and already mix with the haze of the pollution. Hell half the time she thought of keeping an air tank and mask on her in fear of getting lung cancer after living in Mercy Falls and knowing what real clean air was.

Now, Isabel had done a few phone calls and had called for a car rental to get from the air port, asking for a jeep for once! Not the normal car for the cold beauty who loved the speed of four wheels but if Isabel had to take a few two tracks back to Cabin St Cole, sometimes you had to make a few calls based on reason.

Some hours later, she was pulled out of Duluth, her I-pod hooked to the radio and songs mixed in with a few of Sam's she had loaded up and a few that Sam and Grace and even Cole had put in before she had left last year. Sort of their way of keeping with her, minus the phone calls well if Cole called it turned into a back and forth of dry wit and heavy sexual deviant jokes of both sides of the line. Rock boy had won the last talk but that had been weeks ago and it had been still warm enough he would stay human right? Could it be cold enough to lock Cole and Grace in their wolf skins once the sun set with out warmth? What was Sam doing and why had none of them called her back at all this week?

"Remind me to punch St Clair and chew out Sam and grace when I see them…" she thought, her blue eyes narrowing a moment as the ipod shuffled a bit. Biting her lower glossy lip from the build up of nerves and worries that had lain on her shoulders all week from the news and hoping her friends where still human. The sun shone brightly in casting out light into the forest as she drove by on the two lane track, no other car filled the raid in the warm in Indian summer. Yes it was warm enough to where the wolves would stay human but often the nights in Mercy Falls this time of year got cold quick and sharp enough to pull away the human skin.

Isabel knew also, Cole and Grace where the last of Beck's pack to still keep human at all; all the other wolves no longer came to be human under the summer heat at all. Pity did lightly rise back in her own mind, recalling Jack. Had somehow was karma punishing her? Not saving Jack? Not acting fast enough to save the wolves from the hunt? Not helping out Grace and Sam and Cole fast enough when they needed her at all? Was all this some kind of divine act to kill her with a freaking ass tumor of all things .She almost stopped the car, knowing in full truth: she was dying! Panic did nearly take the normal cool woman but what kept it down was she also knew she had a chance, becoming a wolf of all things.

Oh hell the idea scared the living shit out of her but Isabel was going to fight tooth and nail to live and beat this thing but could the wolf virus kill the tumor and save her. No, the idea of spending a winter as wolf and loosing months of her life was not a comfort but if it did work, she would have a life of her own. "Wonder how their going to take the news with the add on. Cole will most likely take it off the bat, being the way he is. Grace will be trouble but after facts sink in, being all practical and such as she it, the will side and help me. One big problem is Sam. He won't understand after everything has happened…." She muttered, the music lost in the back ground.

Some how the music caught the mood, making her tune into the music all the more as the song rolled out from the speakers:

_So give me hope in the darkness that I will see the light  
Cause oh that gave me such a fright  
But I will hold on as long as you like  
Just promise me that we'll be alright_

Some how the song sounded like an epitaph to her for the moment, letting the words play in her head for the moment. Why did life have to go from one level to the next? A lot had happened in her life from loosing Jack and finding out that werewolves had been living in her back yard sort of. Which speaking of werewolves, Beck's house loomed in the frame of the woods.

Pulling up, she cut the roar of the engine as the sound of peace settled into the woods. Her eyes scanned a moment and saw no car in the drive way. Getting out, her black boots gritted on the path as she slammed the door shut and moved to the door to knock, listening for any kind of sounds of life from the brick building. Something about it seemed lonely, empty of the people who once called it home in the summer heat now lost to the bodies of wolves. Still nothing came from the house so it meant the pair was at Lair of St Cole.

"Great, one more long drive to the middle of no were…." She thought, still a bit fearful two of her friends had lost themselves to the wolves.

Jumping back into the jeep, she pulled out and once more headed out to the cabin and the new home of the wolves as the white birch loomed with golden leaves in a blur as she put more into the gas. In moments the sleepy streets of Mercy Falls fell under away from her tires as she passed from human world once more into the wild of nature and making a few turns on a back road here and there to get to the cabin, More and more of the worry on explaining and popping out the news ran around in her like a bad pop tune.

Warm air hit her, bringing in the scents of the woods and making her smile a bit. LA and the city life could be nice but nature had its own way of stirring into the heart. Isabel would be the last person to say she liked the woods in open public but she had sort of missed this place. Mercy Falls also had given her some of the only true friendships she had ever had from a werewolf boy, a book nerd and a former rock band lead of all things to find in these silent woods.

Normally a outsider would use a GPS to find this place but she knew the way. Pulling onto the two tracks with a faint scent of fresh water moving into the air of the lake close by on the edge of the woods. Smoke did curl from the chimney a bit in a white whisper, saying someone living and very human was in the cabin. Along with two cars, Sam's and a 2011 Ford black Truck that screamed Cole somehow to her with a raised blond brow.

Maybe also it was the feeling of not being alone that made her stand still for moment much like how she had picked up from the human wolves she called friends to listen to the forest life, feeling of eyes on her and watching her made Isabel turn a moment to peek in the way of a few pine trees with the shape of a wolf very much looking. The fur was a molt of browns ands rusty red over the chest with black tipped ears. Way to hazel eyes stated right back her with a very un-wolf like weight to the gaze, nearly human in the light. Still she knew that was no normal wolf with such human eyes watching the human who had come to the pack's world.

Did he know somehow? Recall her scent some how in his vague impression of memories? Could they hold something of regains of a human way? She had asked Cole that once and even Grace, both had different views but they not been wolves also long enough to recall in deep information. Hell, Isabel had thought to ask Sam but knowing how he took to questions on the wolves and pack. Well he just always got this look in his face and tone in his voice with out briskly saying no.

He only watched the human for the moment, his nose twitching and not placing the scents of memory to the humans/pack members who lived and came and went from the lands. She was human yes, normally his instincts would tell him to run and blend into the forest but Derrick had always had the most human curiosity in wolf form and still did. But the distant did recall a house and food left out in the back in his mind, sort playing connection dots in the lupine head. Tilting a bit to catch maybe her voice not so far but a image of deer and the message of hunt pulled the wolf away in moments in rush of paws but he looked back once with maybe something of a smile. There was something new in the woods to watch.

Isabel watched with a faint but weary inquisitiveness in how the wolf did act and rush off, but also more of a question. She personal had never really seen too much of the pack save Grace and Sam and Cole here and there. "Stranger things have happened." She thought, blinking in hearing someone was walking down the path.

"Isabel? What in the world are you doing here?" Grace moved between the parked cars, glad in normal jeans, a tan blouse of long sleeves and hiking boots that had seen better days. Blond hair was kept in capture in a braid but a few loose hairs shone in the sunlight. Blue eyes looked wide and full of surprise and thankfully she looked very human in her skin.

"Thought I would see if you where still alive after not picking up my cell phone calls Brisbane or are you Miss Roth yet?" Isabel shot out the normal dry tone that came with the image of Isabel but she smiled a bit more warmer and softer at one of her friends."

Grace blinked, smiling brightly before moving to a few yards to lightly hug the other girl for the moment, not to tight or long but effect. Yet something her scent had changed, the wolf stirring a moment under the human skin. Making her brows tighten a moment but not saying or pushing. Release to step back a bit and eyeing her more out. "Sorry, I lost my cell phone a bit ago and we don't get much of a single out this way. I've been trying to get Cole to get a land line but he keeps putting it off."

Much had not changed yet something had, Grace for the moment thinking but blinking, "Let's get inside. Cole is down stairs doing his mad scientist thing."

Shaking her head as the blond turned to platinum in the sunlight, the Caili girl followed the other into the cabin, picking up scents of wood smoke from the chimney as it moved white in the air. Isabel for the moment took in the time to see the cabin had been fixed up, new glass and wood.

Grace moved up the steps with Isabal not to far behind and opening the door, scents of smoke filled both their noses with other unknown and maybe some peninsula l? Grace blinked as her eyes took in the change of light a bit as Isabel shut the door and took a spot to lean on the love seat that had seen better days from the once blue and dull coloring. "Cole, we got some company if you want to stop playing mad scientist for a while."

Sounds from the basement and a creak of stairs caught the Caili girls' ears as Cole St Clair made his grand entrance to the world. Looking always like some broken artist dream that had broken and shatter the first drawing. A sort of savage handsome most woman would have wet dreams on must one look and yearning to kiss those full lips and sharp blue eyes always seeming half empty and raw as he was. Jagged in body language but hard in lean muscles, the holey Black Sabbath shirt that clung to his upper body and low cut jeans showing off the cut of his pelvis bones as he moved into the light. Unruly hair of a deep bronze was longer and ragged but it only made him look more like a wild child or man. Something of the side effect of the wolf under his skin?

"Well, look what the wolf dragged in? Miss Isabel Cooper! What a shock you would drop the sun and plastic people of California for cold weather and werewolves!" Cole's sharp sarcasm hit a new high but he did smile a bit warmer then he might have at the "normal people" of the world.

Shrugging a bit, "Yah thought I would stop by to see if you where in the none shedding shape still Cole. Could it kill you to call me back once in a while?"

St Clair tilted his head, hearing a sharp tone but winced a little in blunt statement, "Sorry bout that seems I chewed on my cell phone in wolf form a few weeks ago. I got it all on web cam if you want to see for kicks."

"Chew on your cell phone?" She asked, looking at Grace who only rolled her eyes.

Cole sheepishly for once had a time to look embattled, "Temps fell to cold and I shifted in the house and well, come morning woke up with my cell phone in wolf bite treats."

Some how the idea of Cole, eating his own cell phone just got a rare thing from Isabel Copper: a real laugh. Breaking out in a full on laughter. Both Grace and Cole just did a dead on blank look in seeing the former icy queen break down into a gut on laugh, tears building under her long eye lashes and pooling to slide a few down her rosy cheeks. Hair that had grown back, full locks flashed nearly silver in the light as they bounced from the movement, echoing off the walls but soon even Grace was laughing at the idea of Cole eating his own phone.

Well for the most part, the once play boy rock star just stood there and took it much as a man he could but if it got Isabel to laugh, hell he would take one for the manhood team. Yet soon all the laughter ended, Cole feeling that gnawing feeling that there was more to the random pop up of Miss Cooper then she was letting on, "So Isabella, why the drop in out of the blue? Something more had to drag you out to no man's or well werewolf land with out a cause?"

Grace had known some how Cole would hit the nail on the head, watching the beauty take a moment to lean back on the sofa's back and lightly crossing her arms, many things rippled on her fine lips from a nearly sad look to something of the normal frozen look she kept, but her lips pulled tightly as she took a deep breathe and finally looked at them both, making even their wolves under the skin grew still from the icy look in her eyes and dark lashes.

"Ok, don't ask or say anything till I get done. Not even you Cole and you bits of useless wise man crap." Isabel's voice was dead pan, leaving no room for any sort of talk back. "The last few months ago, I started to have these bad headaches, moments of dizzy spells and having problems sleeping. Thought it was stress from collage life and my normal life drama so I went to a Doctor, he did a few check ups on me. Ask me for some x-rays last week and near 5 days ago called me back into his office. Turns out cutting the bull crap, I have a tumor in my brain its going to kill me in 6 months or less. Also no, they have no surgery they can do at all to remove it buy me life time."

Tick Tick went the Grandfather clock as the truth was thrown out, blue eyes for the moment watch things of shock cover the pairs face, pity filling them for a moment or two but Cole covered his deeper feelings faster then Grace could, while she only bite her lip and had the feeling of tears lay and fight to come out. After everything and loosing so many people over the last year did Isabel also have to sacrificed?

Isabel kept rolling, knowing it was best to hit the damn nail on the head. "More the reason I'm here, personally I'm not ready for a dirt nap or to stop fighting. I want a chance to live my life, in any way or well shape. I want to become a wolf, hoping in theory it might fight off the tumor. I want you to make me a wolf."

In this moment, Sam stepped into hear the words, Isabel filling his eyes. "I want you to make me a wolf." Filling his ears and everything stopped in that moment. Hearing his only real human friend saying words he thought he would never hear.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: A Moment to Understand

"I want you to turn me into a wolf." Her voice was hard as the door cracked open.

If hell could have frozen over, it did that moment for Sam for hearing one of his most human friends say that as he had come back from checking the fence for holes that the wolves could use to head back to their old lands. Having Boundary woods been their home for so long, and a bit of information from Grace and Cole in saying some of the pack wanted to go back "home" had caused some worry for Sam for his family and pack.

Much of Mercy Falls where still ledge about the wolf attacks with Jack and Olive, some of the hunters and police told to keep their eyes open for any wolves but also Officer William Koenig would now and then call Sam to make sure all was well and the pack was safe as they could be. Strangely he found an unlikely friendship in a coffee now and then. Turns out the cop had a thing for old rock bands and did play the bass.

Sam froze in the door way, framed in the sunlight as his yellow eyes widened a moment in not only seeing Isabel at the cabin with Cole and Grace, but hearing those words drop her lips hit deep in his heart. Grace turned to see Sam and before he could even say something, she walked over and placed her hands over his mouth, knowing full well the fight of the last few days would come roaring back hearing someone else say they wanted to be a wolf.

"Sam, Isabel found out she had a brain tumor and has a year to live." Grace hit the point blankly, being the front up soul she always was and not wanting to have a loco Sam blitz out once more on Isabel of all people, "It's why she came here Samuel, so please just listen and don't jump off a cliff."

She cast a look at Cole; he mouthed the words "fighting" with a finger quiet to add more to the meaning and got the human to nod a bit. Explaining why Grace had took a tune when talking about the whole wolf winter thing and Sam's position on it.

Samuel let Grace take her hands away and move to shut the door, pulling in the fresh air to his lungs as his mind reeled from the news given to him by Grace, but what could he say to her? Sorry couldn't cut in the news she was dieing young but the fight he had been having with Grace the last few days had his temper shorter then normal on the "wolf" issues but it would explain in what Isabel had just said. Sam let the moments of silence fill his mind, casting an amber gaze at Cole.

"Could the werewolf virus kill a brain tumor?" He asked, leaning on the door, keeping calm but Grace a bit taken back he was being too partial, and asking the questions she was going to ask.

Cole too looked at Isabel in her face fell a bit, seeing Sam just get to the point was a new one out side his charities, "I don't know in truth, I would need her medical files and to look up some more research and run a few so called test but given how the virus seems to speed up the rate our cells slit and our healing from the shift, it does sort of put our bodies back at well 0 setting. In using myself as a example, a lot of my scars have faded a bit in some places and where I once broke my arm, there is not epicene it happened. So in the term theory, yes…"

Cole's calm tone reminded Isabel of the time back in the hospital when he had explained the "werewolf" thing to them when Grace had been closing to dieing of not shifting for nine years. Something of a seed of hope also it might work to keep her alive planted in her mind set already of what she needed to do but did Isabel want as much facts as she could get and Cole would be the one to find them hopefully, "I did bring my Medical File if it helps, its in the car."

He nodded and felt the tense air all the more, "Well let me grab the file get working! Um Grace, maybe you could take Izzy girl for a walk, show her around and well catch up outside the whole dying thing!"

Grace saw Cole was giving her a opening to talk her some more on the wolf thing and to get away from Sam for a moment or two. "Come on, Isabel I got a few places you might like near the lake!

With out even waiting for Sam to say something, she grabbed the California girl's hand and dragged her outside with out giving Sam a chance to say or protest anything. While Isabel found it out of Graceness just to act and rush out the door but if she and Sam where fighting about the wolves, her saying she wanted to be one had come in at the most wrong of moments.

Cole let out loose whistle as he sank to the lazy boy and rubbed his temples, "Well talk about a pimp slap to the face…."

Sam peeked out the windows to watch the girls walk down a path to the lake, Grace talking a way and Isabel looking like she wanted to run and hide in the woods. "Look, I'm going back to the house and hitting town for a few things, granted the list you texted me Cole…." Sam's voice was dull, mundane given everything and a reason for a few hours of peace was a need.

The hazel eyes of Cole narrowed a moment and let things go, sometimes Sam would get his male PMS moments and had been acting like a over baked emo with his fights with Grace and now adding in Izzy just put more fuel on the fire, "Yah and thanks Sam. I'm going to grab those files from Miss Copper's car and look at what I got to deal with and the other good old b.s. Maybe I can tell her something in the next 24 to make this trip worth it…"

Sam oddly felt the weariness in the once rocker's voice, his body slumped in the lazy boy, "Cole do you think it might work?"

Cole opened his hands wide, acting like a scale making his left hand heavy, "This is what we know about the wolfs and the do's and don't, but the bigger on my right is the unknown on how it might effect say caner or HIV, I mean we are talking on a whole rewrite of our cells to skin Sam, but given how we shift and how we heal I can say in a loose term yes it might heal her by resetting her back to 0 kinda like Grace when she needed to shift. Yet for it to work in long terms, the virus would need time to rewrite the body and etc such junk, so Izzy would have to spend her winter as a wolf to make sure it does work and filter in her body."

Sam blinked; sometimes Cole did show that under the model bad boy he did have a keen mind. "So then there is no choice, she has to become a wolf for a winter. "

Yes it bothered him that once more, the wolves would be taking someone else from him even for a season as they seemed to be doing to Grace. He only signed and pushed back his black bangs from his forehead in a sound of a frustration. To much had already happened this last year, he might give his left hand for some freaking peace just for a bit with no drama of life coming their way.

"Hopefully I will be before it gets to cold, see yah in a bit." Sam walked outside and re shut the door, his mind moving a reel and did not see a few pair of wolf eyes watching him from the trees.

Sunlight did shine out over the colors of the forest, the air warm enough to be welcome on open skin while the two girls walked with out much talking. Isabel took a deep breathe and pulled in the clean air to her lungs, not the dirty thick air of LA tasting like a cigarette. Hell she had missed this in her own way, even the real colors of the forest and birds singing seem to make LA look fake like most the people there.

"You missed this huh?" Grace smiled, seeing her friend take in the air in lung full and looking around the woods, "LA not your type anymore? Coming back to nature?"

Frowning, her winter beauty thought of Grace's question, "A bit, I mean the smug is enough to kill a horse and the news after living here for a bit does get on my nerves. Also much as I hate being cold and the snow, I did miss seasons. LA is kinda fake at times in the endless summers and people, no real depth add in Hollywood unlike here I think."

Grace fought a smile as they kept walking but she did sense and caught a whiff of a few other wolves around, seeing the grey flash and knowing it was Ulrik, with Paul. "So what's the deal with the big lovers fight you sand Sam are having?"

Yep, Grace had known Isabel had picked up something between her and Sam, picking up a golden leaf and fingering it. Peculiarly it was nice to have someone and a girl to talk to about this whole thing outside of Cole and even Rachel who did know the truth of everything was over in Europe till Christmas.

"I know this sound funny, and maybe strange given after everything that's happen with us and the wolves but I won't lie about. I do like being a wolf, for nine years I never shifted but the wolf was always under my skin, I was caught in a between, part of me feeling sad when I heard them howl or I saw them running and being a pack and just free. Yes part of it was wanting to be with Sam, but the other part is my own selfness. I can't convince it to Sam what it was like always being torn in two, stuck in a body with a wolf inside." Grace let some of it come out, "And I know Sam is scared something will happen to me, like I might never become human again, or get killed in the winter, or that I might love being a wolf more then a human and being with him. Yet I did my first selfish thing when I picked Sam, loving him all these years and being with him now but it might be I know I have a choice now to become fully human I just want that one winter as a wolf….to live out that dream and longing that's haunted my whole life."

Moments passed, words dying out in Grace's voice as the sun moved a bit and created a depth of shadows odd the pair of humans with human like eyes watching them under the brushes. Grace was pack, she smelt like them under her human skin but the other female was purely human yet both wolves could recall her SUV driving and coming between them and the hunters, so she had to be a friend of some kind.

Touching a branch bare of its foliage, Isabel took a bit to think of Grace's words, the events of Jack and also Sam's life to this point and the reasons for Cole's own wanting to be a wolf. "Grace, think about it like this, Sam has lost his whole family to the wolves, each year one of them wouldn't shift and he would never see them again or having that fear always there in the back of his mind that they wouldn't come home and be humans. He has lost everyone but the only real family he has left is you and both you fought to be with the other, even now. It might be also that fear too of some how you become human again, yah the odds are a bit rare on that but it might happen. Also being a wolf was like a death sense to Sam, loosing himself each year little by little, and he also might be pushing both his fears on to you."

Grace looked up, a bit taken back Isabel could see things and point them out but the woman had always been more selective to the people around her then she might show, using a mask to keep the world away till she found a few that could expect her and all her depth., "I'm not done, **Brisbane n**ow I can't understand myself in wanting to be wolf the way you and Cole do, given what happened to Jack alright. But yes you have the right to pick being a wolf for a winter to fill in the longing that's haunted your most of your life and Sam should at least try to understand that and give you the space and not push his own fears on you. But keep in mind the kind of life Sam's head to life and grow up in Grace. Personally you both also to bull headed just to sit and talk things out and then have make up sex."

Laughing Grace, let it spill from her lips a bit. Maybe Isabel had been around Cole to much for the end statement but her friend had made some good points she herself had over looked in when it came to Sam. "Thanks **Culpeper** for prep talks but yes I see the point."

Shivering, Isabel wrapped her arms around herself, "Can we head back and get some food and warmth? I also don't want to see a naked Grace shifting right now if you don't mind."

It had gotten cold enough to feel the wolf under her skin to push out a bit but Grace would wait till it was colder and the form would stick, "Sure, food sounds good!"

Few hours later, and some pizza and pop, Isabel had crashed in a guest room, letting sleep incase her mind and body for the first time in days. Some how it felt good being with her friends and knowing there was a chance of hope at last for her life to keep going.

Cole peeked in, the curves of body outline in the sheet as she looked ivory pale with her white blond hair spread out like golden silk. Some how even in sleep, she managed to put to shame most of every other woman. He felt the wolf pulling under his skin, the twist in his gut of the promise of the coming night as a wolf and to forget in being a man. Still even in his wolf form he could recall her in odd moments and he did enjoy it senility she had impressed that well into his mind. Walking away and throwing on a few more logs to the fire just in case and checking the gas.

"Sam sent me a message he's going to stay at Beck's tonight and will be here in the after noon." Grace's voice sounded hollow.

"Let Sam have his emo moments Grace, given you two fighting like school yard crushes and this news on Isabel, we all need a bit of time to let it soak in and you need some space too." Cole smiled, touching his skin on his forearm and picking up the scent of musk of the wolf wanting to flee the human mind set.

Grace smiled, still sad he won't face or talk to her but maybe a night away would help them both, she herself feeling the wolf rising in her bones and the skin feeling too tight on her back and shoulders. Howls filled the air outside and close to the cabin in calling to their pack mates. Cole shrugged and opened the door and moments later with Grace behind, two wolves leap into the moon filled woods.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Passing Moments

Sam took to coming in the days, to be with Grace and help Cole around the Cabin and with the pack in mending the fence and even taking images to put in the book and writing down names and things he had found in files in Beck's in when the wolf had been bite, how long they shifted and when it just stopped. Grace would listen and look over the photo's while Cole did research more about the St Clair as he had named it, how it reacted to things in the blood like the common cold and even HIV, which none of them asked how he got those samples in the mail in the first place as creepy as it was to the other three.

Yet Sam and Grace did seem to mend some things, talking softly on walks and food as they always did in the heat of the day but the true wound of the fight was not brought up. Right now, the main focus was Isabel and what and how to save her and if becoming a wolf might just be the cure. So some things could wait for now, while Isabel took to listening to Cole, even helping to keep notes and thanks to her nursing classes did understand what he said and what some things did and such oddness that now filled the cabin.

Night time was different, Sam would leave them which did hurt Grace but she knew his reasons why and left them at that as the nights grew colder and the heat was fading to keep the humans in flesh. She let things go, yet she knew at night the cold would pull Grace and Cole from their human to wolf pelts after seeing them run off to the timbers and spotting the outlines of the wolves waiting at them. It was when she was alone the fear in knowing she was going to die ate at her and how she helped to kill her brother to keep him human.

Having been there for a good four days, Isabel tired to sleep but the wild howls of the wolves entered her room and knowing Cole's voice and Grace's lighter tone made things harder, giving up at last and pulling on jeans and a loose sweat shirt of the Vikings that Jack had got her for a birthday a year or two ago. Boots kept her feet warm enough as the human stepped out into the night and came to sit on the steps and listening to the howls of the wolves. Wondering if soon her own voice might join them very soon in calling to the moon at night.

Isabel sat for a long hour, listening to the howls and sounds of the woods. "Even if Cole said he quit music, he is still trying to sound the loudest of them." She smiled, hearing his howl over take and grow in tone over the others of his pack. "But Grace has better timing in pick to sing among the load and soft."

Images of her friends as wolves entered her mind, Grace's auburn coat with darker markings here and there and sometimes a tone of deep chestnut while Cole in his grey suit, some deep blacks running along like ripples when he moved and depending on the light. It made her recall a talk with Grace strangely today…

"You know what I find strange in whole werewolf deal is, you guys don't seem to match your hair colors sometimes." Isabel had said, sipping a cup of coffee and looking over Cole's notes once more.

Grace had paused over the book, images of the pack in wolf and human forms lay to be put in with the typed up notes she had gone and copied from Beck's note books. "You know your kinda right in a way. I never thought about it before, I mean Sam's has pitched black hair but when he was a wolf, he's a grayish white with a black tip on his tail…."

She walked over and picked up to images, one of an older woman with gingered shaded hair, the other a wolf nearly looking golden and whiter in shades. "See, if she did match, as a wolf she should be red or rusty red some how but she's a blond wolf! By theory you should match your hair color as a wolf, makes sense!"

Grace took to looking at the images of the pack in both forms and found that most of them did not share the coloring of hair to wolf. "Maybe it has something to do with the shift?"

Isabel looked at a photo of Beck, his hair auburn while his coat in wolf form was dirty silver in shade yet the man had no white hairs of any kind. "Kinda strange, makes me wonder if you dye your hair say like maybe a hot pink! If when you shift, your turn out to be a pink shaded wolf?"

Looking up, the images played out in the other mind's of her as a hot pick wolf running in the woods and a burst of laughter came out, "If that happens you can do my nails to match!" Grace snickered at the idea of having painted nails to match the pink coat!

Smiling for the first time in days, the two girls went on theories of hair colors and dying and how it might affect the wolf coat. "I could open a store "Wolf Be True!" For all werewolf of all kinds to come for a bath, a fur trim and a dye job with nails to match! Bet I would make a killing in the market!"

Grace laughed hard enough for milk to shot out her nose, and moments later after a clean up, "Maybe should try it out Cole and make him a purple shade?"

Isabel a smiled, thinking of a purple color, "Naw, fits Sam more overall emo thing he has kinda going, stick to dark colors for him and deep red for Cole, him being the angry rocker type and bad boy. All bad boys have something red!"

They played around with the idea a bit more till dinner and hit photo shop with wolf picks they found on the net and turned their furs different shades and layout. Cole personally thought females where nuts and kept away in his so called mad-lab with their giggles even coming down to him. Sam on the other hand saw their computer work and shook his head, trailing in to pick up where Grace had stopped.

One thing both Sam and Cole did come too, werewolf or human, females where just nuts sometimes…..

The memory of the day did warm her a bit even while sitting here, the wolves having come to silence. Only the night's creatures and whisper of the pines echoed over to her, the lone human so to speak. Isabel went to stand up but paused, hearing the bush close by move a bit and catching a flash of eyes and an outline of ears. One of the wolves? Grace or Cole? What made her stop from checking it out was the flash of something in the leaves and recalled the white wolf Shelby, her attacking and trying to kill Beck and Cole.

Picking up a stick, the got ready and held it like a baseball bat, eyes narrowed in trying to find any sound of the wolf with her dull ears and lack of scents. One more brush seemed to shiver and rush as a lupin like shape darted and stopped in front of the human, making her scream and fall back on her butt. Eyes closed in knowing it was over but nothing happened as a long wet kiss met her cheek in greeting. Only to open her eyes to see a very wolf Cole sitting down on his hind legs and grinning fully as much as a wolf could.

"COLE YOU IDOIT, YOU SCARED ME HALF TO DEATH!" Her screaming echoed out into the woods enough to silent the owl in a pine tree, "I THOUGHT I WAS GETTING ATTACKED!"

Laying back his ears, the wolf closed his eyes and opened one slightly in a human like way, yet the glint of playful air encased his body all the more in seeing Isabel get so worked up. It took a lot to get the Ice Queen to show such feelings and even more to scare her like this. He formed the plan back as a human, keeping it simple in his mind for the wolf to hold and play out. And yes he was well god damn proud of his actions; tail a light wag on the pine covered earth.

She huffed as she stood up, clearing the dirt from her butt and glaring at the wagging wolf as he looked well pleased with self like always. Human or wolf, the guy had a huge chip on his shoulders enough for half the world. Yet what was strange is as he's a wolf he close to her enough to touch, not running away like most wolves would have once shifted and even his tail was wagging and he seemed grinning, eyes open and sparkling in the light of windows from the cabin. It was a human look cast in a wolfish face yet all pure Cole even to the lay of his ears perked.

"Cole, you are ass hole…" she muttered, sitting down to see what the wolf might do, would he loose his self once more?

The wolf perked his ears to her voice, head a bit tilted in hearing and knowing the tone, the face and the way her hair would lay. Lips pressed in a tight line, eyes narrowed and lacking in color but somehow he knew they were blue and bright, framed in long lashes and point brows. He knew this human, knew her name even if slipped him but always he knew her and her scent, a honey scent mixed in with a taste of the pines she had walked in their woods. Pausing her eyes closed for a long moment and he took to move closer on his paws to smell her better, picking up the under tone of the sickness not in her body.

She for the moment just closed her eyes, feeling sleepy and worn out from the rush called Cole yet something hot and musk with the echo of pine entered her nose, heat on her cheeks and she opened her eyes, meeting the gaze of Cole of his wolfish face.

Everything moment was frozen, he could rip out her throat in moments, and his fangs could snap open. Yet his eyes were narrowed, green like sea glass nearly as nose wiggled and a light whine in his voice as his nose lightly touch her cheek and he pulled back, still close but far away enough to make her heart slow down from light speed to sound. Never had been this close to a wolf, even a human turned wolf, yet it was Cole right? She could always trust him even now.

"Cole, you are something else…." She muttered, feeling too tired to think deeper into the moment and went to stand up and felt the cold in her skin. "See you in the morning wolf boy."

Cole whined a moment, watching the human leave but he felt he should stay with her, she was pack but not wolf, and she was sick. Both of what was human and the wolf could only watch as she shut the door but he knew he should have gone with her in that moment. Sensing something was wrong in her scent…

Close off, the brown female moved under the moonlight, her body loose but full of energy yet the deep longing for her missing side with yellow eyes scène in her mind. The rust of the pack too were in a playful mood, after a good hunt and full bellies helped in the mood as they played tag and did a tug of war with sticks they found. She did join in chasing Derek a few times and nipping lightly at his tail just to turn on paw in a reel of a half circle and he would chase her, coming over in a wolfish grin to leap and jump over the black leader as the young joker ran had on to in the shock of layout. She sent out a low half bark close to sounding like a human laugh and her tail in full wag.

Paul found himself in a tangle of legs and growled a bit in eyes narrowing, being under the other wolf of the pack as he seemed to lay down one of his ears a bit and gave a pup like whine but the playful express on his face only made Paul roll his eyes in a too much moments. Much of the back shared in a laugh of images sent, playing under the moon in their forest home.

Grace tried to keep in the mood but the images of the smoky wolf with yellow eyes she knew with her heart but her mind lacking in the words of knowing felt hollow with out him here. Knowing once the sun and the warmth entered her body, she would be human with one other the pack. He would come but somehow it was never the same when she becomes a wolf. Casting a look back, seeing the trickle of the lights of the cabin as Cole once more returned but he sent her a lone image of the friend they had. Sensing something felt wrong, his eyes seemed deeper then normal, closer them human before in his mind.

Casting a look at the pack, them playing with out the worry, she flicked an ear and turned to join the male as they headed back for the cabin together to keep an eye on their human friend for the rest of the night. Paul blinked, seeing some of his pack run off and Ulrik did close to a human shrug but he too had picked up on something was going on. Part of the leader wanted to keep them close, fighting the urge to give chase and return them to the pack but Ulrik sent the image of human female up at the cabin. That was enough for him, letting the two go to return to the games of chase.

Note: Sorry on the late up date, I've been having major writers block and work with family and life happening but here is chapter Six! I hope to get seven up in the next week! So please review! Also thanks to all the favs and follows and readers! You peeps keep me going on this story!


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